If you’re serious about your business, you should be thinking about putting up a website now. Having a website is a crucial tool for your digital marketing that can significantly help improve your branding and lead generation.
And when it comes to building a website, WordPress is your best choice.
You’ve probably heard about it, but today, you’ll learn more about what WordPress is. You’ll also discover why a lot of website owners love it, and why you should be using this platform for your business website.
By the end of this post, you’ll be convinced that WordPress is all you need to create your site.
What is WordPress?
When we talk about WordPress, we are referring to the self-hosted software WordPress.org. We don’t want you to confuse it with the hosting service WordPress.com.
But what exactly is WordPress?
Many of you know about WordPress as just the simple blogging site. But that’s a common misconception.
Throughout the years, WordPress has evolved into a powerful website builder and a content management system (CMS). And with its exceptional performance, it managed to become the most popular in the field, followed by competitors Joomla and Drupal.
That said, WordPress has become one of the various options to create and manage a website. Be it blogs, personal sites, business websites, and eCommerce stores, you can do it with the said software.
Why is WordPress so Popular?
One study from Kinsta shows that WordPress is the top website builder and CMS worldwide. In fact, it powers 35% of all websites on the Web. That’s a staggering one-third of the Internet.
Even top brands use WordPress to power their websites, including Time Magazine, TechCrunch, and Target, among others. To put that in numbers, the said CMS makes up 14.7% of the world’s top websites.
But why is the platform so popular?
It’s simple: WordPress is easy to use and flexible enough to build various types of websites.
Both its closest competition, Joomla and Drupal, require a certain level of coding knowledge to use these platforms. But not WordPress.
Although WordPress allows experienced users to work with advanced knowledge of coding, it’s not a requirement. Instead, the platform offers basic features for beginners which allows them to create a site even without technical knowledge of any programming language.
That’s a convenient feature, especially for busy individuals and business owners who can’t afford to spend time learning even basic coding.
And that is what sets WordPress apart from the competition.
With such convenience, it is no wonder why WordPress is a reliable website builder used to create 500+ sites each day.
Advantages of Using WordPress
The numbers above are proof that WordPress is the top choice for building websites across the globe.
But WordPress isn’t only popular, it also offers plenty of advantages for its users. Here are some key benefits of using WordPress to power your business or personal website.
1. Flexibility
Whatever your website needs, WordPress can deliver.
Whether you need a basic site to publish personal blogs and showcase a portfolio or a complex version to power an ecommerce store and multinational corporations, it can be done with the software.
The said website builder offers many themes and plugins to adapt to a business’ changing requirements. Depending on your needs, WordPress can be as elaborate or as simple to create and manage a wide range of sites with various purposes.
But its flexibility doesn’t just end there.
You can also use WordPress regardless of your technical experience level. It provides a user-friendly experience to everyone, whether you’re a newbie, an advanced developer, or anyone in between. This brings me to my next point.
2. Ease of Use
With just a few clicks, you can start your own site with WordPress. Yes, you can build a site even if you don’t have knowledge about coding.
But that’s not all there is to it when we talk about this software’s ease of use.
One of the most impressive features of the said CMS is its simplified content creation.
Many website owners find it time-consuming to add and format new pages, blog posts, and images regularly. But not with WordPress.
With its straightforward interface, you’ll find creating content here a breeze.
From the dashboard menu, you can access everything you need to create a new post. There, you’ll find text editors, ways to upload media files, and formatting tools.
You can even make simple site updates yourself. No need to wait for your web designer because WordPress allows full control of your site without much trouble.
3. Constantly Improving
The team at WordPress understands how important site speed and performance are to users. That’s why they always work to improve the platform.
When you use WordPress, expect that they’ll be rolling out some major core and minor updates every now and then. That is to fix small bugs and improve speed and performance for better user experience.
Not only the software is always improving, but so are its plugins and themes. This is vital because outdated plugins and themes are common reasons that slow down a website’s speed.
The great part is: the WordPress software updates itself automatically. And if ever you need to update your software version, themes, or plugins manually, you can do it in as simple as clicking the “Update Now” button.
4. Simple Integration of Themes and Plugins
With a large and growing directory, WordPress has a theme suitable for just about every type of website. Whether it’s for a personal blog, a business website, or an online store, you can choose from basic and premium themes available via the WordPress theme directory or purchasable from a third-party designer and design marketplaces.
Just like themes, the platform also offers tons of plugins to add specialized features on your site. A plugin is a piece of software added to WordPress to perform specific functions to the website. This includes analytics, contact forms, shopping carts, and more.
Once you’ve chosen your theme and plugins, you can integrate them easily into your website. WordPress allows for hassle-free customization without the need to write any code at all. That’s why it’s a great choice for non-tech savvy users.
5. Ranks Higher in the SERPs
Search engines such as Google love WordPress. And what does this mean for your site?
Your website is more likely to appear in the search engine results page (SERP).
WordPress is designed to optimize sites for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO helps websites get more traffic through organic search engine results.
In simpler terms, you’ll be easier to get found when users search for certain keywords on Google and other search engines.
This is because WordPress uses code that is clean and simple. WordPress also has some built-in tools and plugins that are SEO-friendly.
For instance, WordPress allows you to optimize each page, post, and image for specific keywords. This can be done via the platform’s title, meta description, and tags section.
When done correctly, this makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. With such SEO features, WordPress tends to rank higher than others in search engines.
6. Security
In general, WordPress is a safe platform to run a website. It is built with security in mind, which is evident with all the constant updates to fight off threats.
However, the Internet is still unpredictable. There will be malicious attacks, hackers, and malware that can compromise your site.
The good thing is that WordPress enables you to enhance your site’s security with additional protection against intruders.
From integrating password protection, two-factor authentication and SSL certificates to installing WordPress security and backup plugins, the platform ensures that you are safe from cyber-crime threats.
That is if you stay alert and implement some security best practices available on the platform.
7. Mobile Responsiveness
In today’s world, mobile responsiveness is essential for any website. Both your audience and search engines require your site to look good on mobile devices. But why is that?
First, 52% of traffic comes from mobile devices. With such numbers, you have to impress and make those visitors stay, and a mobile-friendly website can help you with just that.
Second, mobile responsiveness also serves as a factor in search engine rankings. If you want to rank higher in the SERPs, your website should be mobile optimized.
Fortunately, WordPress strives hard to cater to mobile usability. The platform is geared to provide responsive designs, optimized images, mobile-friendly plugins, and fast site speed.
8. Own Your Content
Originally a blogging platform, you can expect WordPress to deliver with your content needs.
Publishing content on this platform is easy. It offers a built-in blog feature that allows you to add a new post whenever, wherever. No need to create a separate blog that will save you from all the hassle.
Then, WordPress lets you set up email subscriptions and RSS to your blog. The said CMS also has commenting capabilities, and it is even simple to add new blog posts to other pages of your site, say, your homepage.
With WordPress, you can use its blog features even if your site is unrelated to blogging. This makes it ideal for publishing announcements or updates about your business.
9. Great Support
With more than 30% of website owners using WordPress, you’ll never run out of how-to guides, tutorials, and resources for just about every concern you have regarding the platform.
Users have built a community of WordPress-loving individuals across the globe. They engage and help fellow users through various means, including WordPress forums and WordPress camps.
And it’s not only limited to WordPress. This community also extends to third-party applications that you may be using. So, you’re assured that there will be no shortage of resources on the web.
That’s on top of the help you can get directly from the WordPress support team. This includes 24-hour live chat support, resources, and documentation to get the most out of the most popular CMS.
Designing Your WordPress Website
Now that you know the pros of using WordPress, it’s time to design your first website.
Fortunately, design companies are making it easier for users like you to visually create your WordPress site. With professional-looking themes paired with intuitive page builders, you can have your own website in no time.
Here are some themes I recommend to get you started:
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes offers conversion-focused WordPress themes and plugins to help websites turn visitors into customers, clients, and subscribers. It provides the tools you need to implement value-based actionable content for your audience.
Features:
- Theme builder
- Intuitive drag & drop editor
- Quiz builder
- Lead generation plugin
- Testimonial plugin
- Comments plugin
- A/B testing for landing pages
- Scarcity marketing tool
- Professional online course builder
Learn More About Thrive Themes
Elementor
Elementor is built for professionals from freelancers to agencies. It’s an all-in-one solution for a visual design optimized for faster performance.
Features:
- Visual theme builder
- Design-responsive pixel-perfect layouts
- Drag & drop landing page builder
- Popup builder
- WooCommerce builder
- Form builder to generate more conversions
- Dedicated widgets to streamline marketing efforts
- Seamless integration of your favorite tools
Divi
Divi by Elegant Themes offers an advanced visual builder technology that takes WordPress to a whole new level. It features a visual editor that replaces the standard WordPress post editor, which can be enjoyed by both design professionals and newbies.
Features:
- Drag & drop building
- Visual editing
- Custom CSS control
- Responsive editing
- 800+ pre-made designs
- 40+ unique page elements
- Inline text editing
- Email opt-in provider support
- Pricing tables
- Social follow module
- Built-in split testing
Choose WordPress to Power Your Website
If you’re looking for a website builder that is easy to use and flexible, WordPress is your best option. This platform demands almost no effort from business owners who only want to create their first website—no coding knowledge, no design expertise, no hassle.
With plenty of available themes and plugins, you can create your site with just a few clicks. And maintaining your site wouldn’t be a problem with its technology.
To conclude, WordPress is simply the best choice for creating and managing a website. It wouldn’t be the most popular CMS in the world for nothing.
Now that you know the benefits of using WordPress, I hope this convinces you to use it for your website.
If this convinces you, then share this article and help fellow business owners start their own website.
